School info, Enrollment process, Enrollment application, Tuition & fees

An outdoor Sweet Peas Summer Session will be held in August at the home of Catherine Flynn. This is for parents and their children interested in learning more about a Waldorf experience.

Morning includes:
* welcome circle and songs
* walk through the woods
* free play at playground
* craft for parents
* healthy cooked snack
* closing puppetry story

Three Wednesdays beginning August 11, 10 am - Noon. Parents are welcome to bring along their own picnic lunch to enjoy after the class concludes at noon, before getting into cars to journey home.

Please call BY MONDAY, AUGUST 9 (sooner is even better!), teacher Catherine Flynn, at 261-1906 to let her know you are coming to the first class.

Cost: $15 per class (drop in fine after the first class, however you must at least CALL THE DAY
BEFORE so teacher can prepare enough snack)

Location: 1717 Ashley Lake Trail, west of Kalispell

Directions: From Kalispell, head west on Highway 2 towards Kila about 6 miles til you come to Kelly Rae's Conoco station. Turn Right here on Batavia Road.
Batavia Road changes names to Ashley Lake Road. Go about 6 miles from the Highway 2 turnoff (there are some mile marker signs), climbing up a couple swichbacks near the top, until you come to the pass.
Where the road begins to head back down again, you will see a log sign on a tree "Ashley Lake Trail" - turn Right here.
Go up road about 3/4 mile to a turn around. Our driveway is on the left with an open brown gate and a sign "1717 Ashley Lake Trail."
Go up driveway to the top!

For more information, please call Catherine at 261-1906

Glacier Waldorf programs are currently held at teachers' homes or a church location. These are Waldorf homeschool network groups: one for grades 3 and 4, and a new one forming for 1st grade. We also have a kindergarten homeschool network. Call Catherine Flynn at 406-261-1906 for information about these groups.

Special training for homeschooling parents interested in Waldorf:

Teaching Waldorf in the Home - a Training Intensive in August 2010

Five full days in August, exact days to be arranged with participants, plus a once-a-month study and support group, to bring questions and concerns through the school year, to associate as Waldorf home teachers, and to continue studies of Steiner's education foundations.

Cost: $200

Intensive can be tailored to meet the needs of those attending, but topics would include:

· the basics of Steiner's Waldorf philosophy (the Waldorf view of the human being and child development,
and the “whys” of everything we do in the Waldorf classroom and curriculum),

· self-development of the teacher/parent (inner work),

· elements of and setting up a Waldorf home classroom,

· the basics of Waldorf teaching:
* storytelling
* puppetry (for K)
* music/singing
* art
* circle activities and movement
* handwork
* home arts (for K)
* organizing the day and rhythm

* And in addition for those who will be teaching grades:
* organizing a main lesson
* creating main lesson books
* organizing the year in blocks
* teaching the pentatonic and/or C-flute,
* teaching form drawing, color drawing and watercolor
* mental math activities and games
* chalkboard drawings

In order to facilitate our working together from the same Waldorf ideas and methods, participants would need to purchase their own Waldorf curriculum, and one that is already packaged is highly recommended such as Live Ed or Christopherus (Oak Meadow is not a Waldorf curriculum). These curriculum’s run about $400, and I have to say as a trained Waldorf teacher working isolated from other experienced teachers, they are worth every penny.

For more information, please call Catherine at 261-1906.

Sweet Peas Parent-Child Group
A summer outdoor session will be held in August at the home of Catherine Flynn. Day/time to be determined with participants. For parents and their young children interested in learning more about a Waldorf early childhood experience.

For more information, please call Catherine at 261-1906.

What is it you envision for your child's childhood educational experiences?

Sitting still at desks for long periods of time? Going to school to learn how to take federal tests? Little or no art? Little or no creative free play time or recess? Military-style bells and lunch room seating? Vacuum sealed nutrition? Little or no access to the natural world? Sitting through programs on "no bullying" and "drug free school zones?" Plugged in to all kinds of electronic teaching methods? Early burn-out?

Current research is producing rapidly mounting evidence that the above educational experience is fraught with problems for the well-being of children.

Some current statistics:

• Between 1997 and 2002, the number of kids diagnosed with ADHD increased 33 percent, and spending on ADHD drugs for children UNDER FIVE rose more than 300 percent!
• Childhood obesity has TRIPLED since 1980.
• Overnight stays in national parks have declined 20 percent in the past 10 years.
• A recent study by the Nature Conservancy found a high correlation between the drop in park visits and increased time spent on TV, videos, video games, and the internet.
• According to a 2000 study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, only three states require elementary schools to even hold recess (Montana is NOT one of them).

"In a matter of a few decades, we are seeing the disappearance of unstructured outdoor play," says journalist and child advocate Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods.
(to continue, click "read more" below)

A Waldorf school is very unique in its commitment to the child. This commitment can be thought of as a three-legged stool. One leg is the College of Teachers who dedicate their professional lives to the well being of the children and meeting their needs in the classroom. The second leg is the Board of Trustees, volunteers who are committed to the financial and operational health of the school always in terms of what is best for the children. And the third leg is the Parent Guild, of which all parents are automatically members upon enrolling their children in the school.

All three legs of the stool must be equally strong to support the children in their educational journey. To this end, it is expected that Glacier Waldorf School parents regard school activities and participation as one of their top priorities. When your child enrolls in the school, the parents are expected to attend orientation, all parent evenings and conferences, participate in special classroom activities, school festivals, fundraising activities and events, contribute volunteer time, and support GWS's policies and principles.